Over the course of many years, Universal Creative worked tirelessly on one of the most ambitious
and scenically stunning water parks that sought not to just provide thrilling slides, but
a second to none breathtaking experience.
Universal’s Volcano Bay opened on May 25th, 2017 with a lineup of world class slides and
attractions including one of the longest water coasters, Krakatau Aqua Coaster, built inside
of a volcano and sailing riders over 7 large drops and then back up hill.
Welcome to Amusement Labs, where today I’ll show you the engineering and technology behind
the Krakatau Aqua Coaster.
This video is sponsored by Levi Valentine, Felix Monteza, Brandon Wiggins and Tyson D
at patreon.com / amusement labs.
Get early access and more through the link below.
Located at Universal’s Volcano Bay, Krakatau Aqua Coaster is a hydromagnetic water coaster
built within Krakatau, the park’s 200ft man made volcano built by the Nassal Company.
The ride’s station is located just above one of the park’s lazy rivers and shoots
riders into the volcano through its winding layout.
Queue Unlike traditional parks, Volcano Bay implements
a virtual line system at all their major slides and attractions.
Every guests is given a tapu tapu wristband that represents their spot in line, lets guests
interact with certain objects in the park, takes and links photos and can even be used
for payments at shops and food locations.
Riders looking to board Krakatau Aqua Coaster tap their band and then return when the expected
wait time is nearly over.
This cuts down on having large switchbacks that crowd people in the sun and ruin the
look of the park.
As mentioned earlier, the ride is a hydromagnetic water coaster and is designed by ProSlide
Technologies out of Ontario Canada.
How I’ll explain the ride’s technology is based on the publicly available patent.
If you’d like to read the whole thing I’ve placed a link below.
Regular Slide Sections Like traditional enclosed water slides, the
turns of Krakatau Aqua Coaster features a regular flow of water that supports the boat
through turns and also acts as a bit of brake after each drop and hill, plus at the end
of the ride.
Riders will weave through wide and tight helixes and turns throughout the ride along with sprinklers
above to keep the boat from scratching the enameled, waxed and polished fiberglass the
ride is primarily made of.
Water Coasters: defined Water coasters are a technological upgrade
to regular water slides.
Typical water slides often only traverse a varying downhill slope and while there are
slides that do send riders slightly uphill, it’s not without compromise in the length
of the slide, height, how many uphill motions there are and even success rates.
Water coasters defy this norm sending riders back uphill multiple times.
This is of course with the aid of a propulsion system that interfaces with the raft or boat
riders are seated in to push it back up the hill.
Additionally all water coasters require that the boat or raft already be in motion when
they hit the propulsion system.
Boats & Reaction Plate When riders climb up and arrive at the load
platform they board 4 passenger boats that slowly move by on a conveyor belt.
Each boat on Krakatau Aqua Coaster is rather firm and consists of buoy sidings like you
would see on a pontoon in order to support it through the regular slide sections.
Each boat has a max rider capacity of 700 pounds or about 317 kilograms in order to
keep the ride moving.
The bottom of the boat is covered with a smooth vinyl material to allow for easy movement
along the water coaster.
On the bottom of the boat behind this vinyl cover is what’s called the reaction plate.
The reaction plate actually contains 2 layers, and in this case the boat uses a 1 - 8th inch
or about 3mm thick plate of aluminum that is 72 inches, about 1.8 meters long and 18
inches wide, about 0.45 meters.
Above the aluminum plate is a non ferrous plate of galvanized steel that is 3/32nds
of an inch thick, about 2.5 millimeters, and is just as long as the aluminum plate, but
16 inches wide.
These plates work together to provide a return path for the magnetic flux or field generated.
LIMs & WDW PeopleMover ProSlide Technology is not the only manufacturer
of water coasters in the industry and in fact, they themselves offer multiple different propulsion
systems for their water coaster.
Krakatau Aqua Coaster uses a series of Linear Induction Motors to induce a linearly moving
attractive and repulsive forces.
The Linear induction motors start by taking a line of enameled wire and winding it countless
times around a laminated iron core within each stator or piece of the overall motor.
Each stator has a 3 phase winding inside and is connected to an electrical inverter that
pulls power from supercapacitors, providing a strong power supply.
Each linear induction motor stator is provided with a 480V AC or alternating current at 60Hz
or 60 times per second.
According to the patent each LIM stator is about the size of a large dictionary and they
are separated about half a meter or 1.5 feet apart from each other.
Much like a regular spinning motor that provides rotational motion, this kind of motor interacts
with the reaction plate to impart a linear motion, uphill.
When the Linear induction motors impart current into the reaction plate through a traveling
magnetic field it creates its own magnetic field within the aluminum layer.
In combination with the magnetic flux that the steel layer of the reaction plate redirects
away from the boat, this creates the linear motion.
If this sounds somewhat familiar to you, it’s the same technology used on the Magic Kingdom’s
Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover as well as in early launched roller coasters.
Speed Sensors Prior to starting down the course each boat
is weighed to assure it’s under the rider capacity.
As a boat heads downhill for each drop, proximity sensors located under the slide surface sense
and form the boat’s velocity profile.
The ride’s computers then calculate what kind of power will be needed to propel the
boat back up the hill using the linear induction motor setup and adjust as needed.
This live system adaptation provides riders with the same experience each time regardless
of group size.
As the boat passes over each stator of the linear motor more proximity sensors direct
each stator to turn on and check to make sure the boat is making it up the hill fine.
If small adjustments are needed it can make those in real time.
If the stators can’t make the needed changes the ride will fault and the boat will safely
slide back down the hill.
Water Misters In order to make sure that each boat slides
effortlessly down and back up, small water sprayers are located on both the drop and
the uphill climb.
This keeps the surface of the slide slippery and allows for a small layer of water to help
the boat essentially hydroplane over the surface.
This provides the lower friction needed to keep the boats moving, keeps the Linear Induction
Motors from straining and reduces the water and power waste.
(the LIMs are not able to launch the boat from a stand still.)
This clever adaptation of roller coaster launch technology allows for safe and contactless
propulsion that requires less water and has fewer mechanical parts than other methods.
As the saying goes the best part is no part and the hydromagnetic technology created by
ProSlide simplifies the mechanics of water coasters and even makes them more intense.
Put it all together Putting this all together creates a system
that weighs the boat, slicks the slide surfaces, tracks the boat’s speed and pushes current
through the linear induction motors and into the reaction plate propelling the boat uphill.
Out of the station we drop downward and hit the first linear induction motor quickly sliding
back uphill.
We then head down again as we enter the volcano before hitting the second uphill climb, and
into a quick u turn being misted in the process.
Heading back downhill we hit the third uphill climb.
Another u turn and another drop and climb.
The process repeats until we reach the final section where the boat makes its grand finale
with the largest drop number 7 and even an on ride photo is taken.
We then head back uphill where we hit a deeper trough of water slowing us down and then back
to the station.
Combined with tight enclosed turnarounds and mist, Krakatau Aqua Coaster sends riders through
7 drops and fast uphill climbs in just 1 minute.
Ultimately Krakatau Aqua Coaster serves as an excellent marquee attraction in a park
bursting with fun and stunning detail and innovative technology.
Universal’s integration of Krakatau Aqua Coaster into Volcano Bay demonstrates their
commitment to providing an unmatched thrilling experience be it on rails or on water that
is as they say better than any man made thrill.
And that’s how Krakatau Aqua Coaster works.
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Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the parks.